Sea Lab class teaches about earthquakes

Tuesday

Jun 3, 2008 at 12:10 AMJun 3, 2008 at 12:28 AM

Dunbar School students are attending a class on seismology at New Bedford's Sea Lab in a partnership conceived as part of a larger effort to improve the quality of science education in schools throughout the country.

DON CUDDY

What did you learn at school today?

Parents of fifth-graders at the Dunbar School in New Bedford might not get the answer they expect if they ask their children that question these days. "The theory of plate tectonics" would be a likely response.

The students from Dunbar are attending a class on seismology at New Bedford's Sea Lab, taught by an instructor from Boston College in a partnership conceived as part of a larger effort to improve the quality of science education in schools throughout the country.

It has been five years since Sea Lab enrolled in the Boston College Educational Seismology Program thanks to a grant provided by the Environmental Protection Agency. Sea Lab currently offers eight- to 10-week courses in seismology to New Bedford schools on a rotating basis and a seismograph in the lobby is the first thing students see when they enter the school.

Kelsey Gomes, 11, found out about the recent earthquake in China when she saw the dramatic peaks displayed on the seismograph.

"A lot of people were left without a home and had to go somewhere else to get their supplies," she said. "I learned about faults here. There are three types and they're caused by different types of energy."

"Students take a course in global tectonics, earthquakes and seismology," said Simone Bourgeois, teacher and curriculum developer at Sea Lab. "So far we've had kids here from the Hannigan School, Hathaway School, Carney Academy and now Dunbar School. The program helps them to strengthen their skills in the science MCAS, as well as showing them how the forces of nature can directly impact their lives."

Studying earthquakes around the globe has become a real world activity for these students, Ms. Bourgeois said.

"With the instruments that we have, we know when there is an earthquake before the media finds out," Sea Lab principal Arthur Dutra said. "This program is providing a great opportunity to these kids and also for the city to partner with a university."

Alan Kafka, a professor of geophysics at the Weston Observatory, the research lab that is part of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Boston College, oversees the BC-ESP program. The impetus for its creation came 10 years ago when a group of seismologists were discussing the challenge still confronting the entire scientific community in this country: how to promote the development of curiosity and scientific reasoning in school children?

The solution, they decided, was to put seismographs in classrooms, thereby providing students and their teachers with the opportunity to be directly involved in scientific research by collecting data from the real world.

"Prior to this initiative, seismographs were expensive research instruments that only a seismologist could love," Professor Kafka said.

"Our goal became to build a seismograph that was affordable, simple to install and operate yet could record earthquakes well." Various efforts were undertaken before a working model emerged. "In California a guy named Jeff Baten built one in his garage," the professor said last week as he demonstrated the machine, known as the AS-1, at Sea Lab.

"He called his company Amateur Seismologists. That's why this machine is called the AS-1."

By developing an instrument that sells for around $800, the seismographs-in-schools project became a reality nationwide. Twenty schools in Massachusetts now participate in the program.

"I think New Bedford is the furthest site from Boston College," the professor said. "But when I saw how unique a school it is, we had to come. I don't know if there are too many places in the country where you have this quality of education in a public school.

"It's a long commute but at this point Sea Lab is one of our main centers."

Class instructor Leslie Campbell is an educational seismologist at B.C.

"We teach the same topics from third grade to high school seniors. We just break it down into smaller pieces for younger kids," Ms. Campbell said. "The younger kids are great. They are just so interested in the Earth and what's going on with it, so it's easy to get them excited about it."

These types of educational partnerships are vital, Professor Kafka said, if the country wishes to remain competitive in the increasingly complex world. Developing an interest in the sciences among younger children has now become a goal shared by many educators concerned about the future.

"We want to develop their problem-solving skills by having them learn about science as it is practiced in the real world," he said.

Contact Don Cuddy at doncuddy@s-t.com.

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